ADA
Richmond
adagallery.com
@the_ada_gallery / adagallery@gmail.com / Future Fair Voices: ADA / Artsy
TRANSUBSTANTIATION: NICK FAGAN
Nick Fagan’s, “Transubstantiation” is a new series of quilted tapestries made from used moving blankets. Raised in a Catholic household, Fagan’s title refers to the spiritual process, through ritual, where wine and bread turn into the blood and body of Christ. Intrigued by this idea, Fagan embraces this notion that everyday objects, materials can be transformed into something much greater.
When not making art, teaching, or working as a preparator at the ICA in Richmond, Nick works as a mover. Overtime Nick became fascinated with the moving blankets themselves, these everyday, mundane objects which protect and preserve a family’s beloved belongings, that show the wear and tear of the labor and the history of these moves and yet go unnoticed and unheralded. Fagan states, “the blanket envelops these precious objects and gains a charge, similar to Joseph Beuys’ idea of charging objects.”
Fagan is fascinated by the residue of touch, including stains and rips, the evidence which remains from the ritual of moving. “Thinking back to the transubstantiation idea of the body and blood, the mover’s body is intertwined with the blankets through their sweat and labor, transforming a blanket into a spirit of labor. There is a power and charge when you see the moving blanket transformed into a tapestry, this fabric that has a history of protecting and porting things now becoming spiritual and large.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Nick Fagan is a painter and sculptor based in Richmond, Virginia. He received his MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH (2017), and his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA (2014). Fagan’s most recent solo exhibition, Existential Marks exhibited at ADA Gallery in April 2019. Fagan’s past residencies include the Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT), the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (Madison, ME), as well as the Anderson Gallery (Richmond). His most recent residency was in June 2018 with the ARC Residency (Chattanooga), where he produced and exhibited a body of work entitled Making Authority. Fagan has been awarded the John Fergus Family Scholarship Award in 2017 and 2016, the VSA Kennedy Center Award in 2016, the Harold North Award in 2014 and the Charles Renick Scholarship in 2013. He has been featured in press ranging from NPR and New American Paintings to THE RIB and Artist A Day. His work is also part of the Ohio State University Collection.
ABOUT ADA GALLERY
Founded in 2003, ada gallery is an artist run gallery in Richmond, Virginia that presents monthly solo and group exhibitions with a focus on emerging art. With an MFA in painting, John Pollard, the gallery director and founder leans heavily towards drawing and painting though seeks out and exhibits unique artists in all media.
ada gallery and it’s artists have been featured many art magazines and online venues, New York Times, Vulture, ArtForum, Artnet, Brooklyn Rail, Beautiful Decay, Whitehot magazine, Burnaway to name a few, and has participated in many art fairs since 2006, UNTITLED Miami, NADA NY and Miami, VOLTA NY in recent years. ada gallery artists are in many private and public collections.